At any moment he could be betrayed, or even murdered, or fall from God’s grace through some unfortunate turn of events, as his father had done in his protracted sickness… at the prince’s palace at Westminster was a seat hanging worked with the inscription, Je vous ayme loialment (I love you loyally), as if the emphasis on loyalty somehow made it more substantial. At his court there was a sense that everything good, noble, virtuous and worth loving hung by a slender thread, and might vanish in an instant. - 1415: Henry V’s Year of Glory, Ian Mortimer.
#oh my GOD mal this is incredibly rude #and i don’t even go here (yet) #because he is god’s chosen on earth #and how fickle is god’s will that kings rise and fall with the plans of base men #and how paranoia would consume the one who believed himself chosen #how truly apocalyptic that would be; to live every day in a body blessed by the will of god to rule#and know that at any moment the entire kingdom in his body could come crumbling down#love is not enough; never enough for those god-chosen and royal
OKAY THE BEST THING, the best thing, the best best best thing about h5 (among the many many many many wonderful things about h5) is that he knows this, really well, h5 is REALLY GOOD at being aware of his status
and he takes and he does things sort of…in spite of it, i suppose? in defiance of. he’s aware that everything could collapse, and he knows that everyone else is aware that everything could collapse, and he just focuses on being this sort of divine legend king and makes himself into that, because he can. like, he looks at the divine will and says, ‘yes. that is what i will do. i will do things and they will become that.’ they’re the same thing to him.
like. i get the feeling that a lot of the things he does are enormously risky and really really really really wouldn’t succeed if anyone other than him was doing them.
and then everything does break, and england goes to hell a bit after his death (the h6’s! what tragic plays!) but he’s still remembered as the divine legendary devout warrior king.
(also please please come join us in the henry the fifth fandom, it is a great place to be, i can never decide whether i like shakespeare’s version of h5 or actual history h5 because they are both wonderful and terrible in equal measures and in different ways)